On 6/28/2020 2:32 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
Why is byte-granularity in addressing a necessity? It's only an issue
if you have instructions that operate directly on byte quantities in memory.
Why have bytes in the first place then? A packed string does count here.
IBM started this mess with the 360 and 32 bits, and everybody
followed.Is Fortran I/O the BIBLE on character data.
IBM never seemed even to follow one character set encoding even with the
similar machines like the IBM 1130.
--Chuck
We don't have opcode space (now that we are 32 bits) to give a byte
LOAD/STORE but you can buy extra hardware for string functions seems to
have been the marketing idea back then.
Since punchcards I think had a 16 bit encoding, lack of byte data
was not big problem. Who used paper tape on a 360?
Ben.
